A 29-year-old white supremacist from South Carolina allegedly plotting an attack inspired by Charleston church shooter Dylann Roof was arrested by federal agents in an FBI sting this week. His plan ran into some other logistical problems along the way: his mother wouldn’t let him use her cellphone, and he had to borrow money from his grandfather to buy a weapon from the undercover FBI agent he thought was a member of the Aryan Nations.The FBI on Wednesday arrested Benjamin Thomas Samuel McDowell of Conway, South Carolina, in the parking lot of a Hampton Inn in Myrtle Beach after he purchased a disabled Glock and hollow point ammunition from an undercover federal agent for $109.

As of Thursday, McDowell has been charged with possessing a firearm as a felon. The Horry County Police Department told the FBI that McDowell had “established White Supremacy Extremist connections while serving prison sentences in South Carolina for various criminal offenses,” according to an affidavit from FBI Special Agent Grant Lowe that was filed in federal court.

McDowell, who has several white supremacist tattoos, reportedly floated the idea of attacking the Temple Emanu-El in Myrtle Beach in a message sent on Facebook the day after Christmas. Later, on Jan. 5, McDowell made a lengthy post on Facebook filled with errors and vulgarities ― some of which appear below ― that may have brought him to the attention of authorities. In the largely incoherent post, McDowell complained about white supremacists who only have tattoos but “don’t give a fuck about their white race” and only want to “stay loaded on drugs” he believed were brought in by “the Jews.” He complained about “white people running their fucking mouth not doing nothing” and didn’t have “the heart to fight for Yahweh like dylann roof did.”The post references Roof, the self-proclaimed white supremacist who massacred nine black people attending Bible study at a Charleston, South Carolina, church in 2015. Roof was sentenced to death in January.

Shortly after that post, it appears the FBI began the sting that eventually nabbed McDowell. McDowell met the undercover FBI agent on Jan. 12, when the agent was posing as a white supremacist who “handled problems for the Aryan Nations,” according to the FBI affidavit. McDowell brought marijuana with him to the meeting, but the undercover agent asked him not to smoke it. The agent told McDowell that he had to make sure that their connection stayed secret, and that whatever McDowell planned to do “doesn’t come back to me.” McDowell “voiced apparent frustration with other white supremacists, stating that screaming ‘white power’ was not getting the job done,” according to the FBI. “I got the heart to do that shit, but I don’t have the good training,” McDowell allegedly told the undercover agent. “I seen what Dylann Roof did and in my heart I reckon I got a little bit of hatred and I … I want to do that shit. Like, I got desire … not for nobody else … it just … I want something where I can say, ‘I fucking did that’ ... me personally.”

“If I could do something on a fucking big scale and write on the fucking building or whatever, ‘In the spirit of Dylann Roof,’” McDowell allegedly said. At that point, McDowell had not settled on a target for his attack. McDowell once again praised Roof in a barely discernible Facebook post on Jan. 25, according to the FBI. “I wish the day we all get off Facebook and white Warriors like we was born to be like Dylan roof but we gotta do it in a smart [way],” the post read.

On Feb. 11, McDowell used his mother’s landline to tell the undercover FBI agent that he’d run out of minutes on his cellphone plan and that his mother would not let him use her cellphone. He wanted to meet up in person, and they agreed to meet on Feb. 15. The plan was that the undercover FBI agent would take McDowell to his grandfather’s house to borrow money to purchase the weapon and ammunition.

McDowell was arrested in the Hampton Inn parking lot soon after the purchase was completed. McDowell has a lengthy criminal past, according to WMBF, with at least seven arrests in South Carolina since 2007, including for violent second-degree burglary, larceny and third-degree assault and battery. Federal court records indicate that a federal public defender was appointed to represent McDowell on Thursday. He was being held at the J. Reuben Long Detention Center, the jail in Horry County, according to WMBF.

President Donald Trump’s administration has downplayed the dangers of far-right extremism in the United States, instead talking almost solely about terrorism motivated by “Islamic extremism.” But a 2015 Department of Homeland Security report stated some federal and local authorities viewed domestic, far-right extremism as a threat equal to or greater than that of Islamic terror groups, CNN reported at the time.

Recent high-profile far-right terror attacks have included the Charleston massacre and a 2015 shooting at a Colorado Planned Parenthood that left three people dead and nine injured. Numerous other plots have been disrupted by law enforcement. And in the wake of Trump’s rise to power, anti-Muslim hate groups have tripled in number and Jewish community centers across the U.S. have seen a major spike in bomb threats.

Even so, Reuters reported this month that Trump is considering radically narrowing the federal “Countering Violent Extremism” program to focus only on Islamic extremism. The name of the program would be changed to “Countering Islamic Extremism” or “Countering Radical Islamic Extremism,” and it would cease to target white supremacists or any other potential terrorists with no ties with Islam.http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/benjamin-mcdowell-fbi-dylann-roof_us_58a5e7f6e4b045cd34bf9312

Bad enough that our 'Right Narrow Minded' people wanting to blame game the Muslim/Islamic few residents in my country will now have a great field day with the 'King of Tweets' Gerrymandering the federal guidelines and descriptions that were established for the heinous acts that Dylan Roof was sentenced under = He is the first federal hate-crime defendant to be sentenced to death, a Justice Department spokesman said.

Instead of 'Domestic Terrorism' as many thought the law should have been titled ...the quaint euphemism language applied to such dastardly deeds upon so hapless victims is just absurd ...unless you are from a Muslim family But that's the NEW MENTALITY that my country is drowning in daily.

They just can't bring themselves to use the world 'terrorist' if they are white.

Found this interesting:

Young White Men Are Being Radicalized. It’s Time To Talk About ItAs Trump pitches fight against 'Islamic terrorists', where is the alarm over disenfranchised men being lured into white supremacist movements?

White supremacy swept to power the day Donald Trump was elected president of the United States. His most ardent supporters championed him across the world. For them, Trump signaled the resurgence of white male dominance and they weren’t ashamed to celebrate it.

Their influence is growing. Following Trump’s executive order to ban citizens from seven predominantly Muslim countries from entering the US – a decree overturned by federal courts – white nationalists took to Reddit to express their joy. Trump, it seemed, was the real deal.

One user even said that he was so proud of Trump that he couldn’t possibly “raise his right arm any higher” – a reference to the **** salute.

These posts aren’t anecdotal. The Southern Poverty Law Center has documented 1,094 hate-related incidences in the US since the first month of Trump’s election victory. In 37 percent of all cases, there was a direct reference to Trump or something he said.

The SPLC has also counted 892 hate groups in the US, the clear majority of which espouse white supremacist views.

Many of these movements are active on gaming networks and internet forums such as Stormfront, which has become a breeding ground for far right-wing extremists.

Now, the White House is presenting racism as an acceptable ideology, resulting in the radicalization of young white men across the world.

It’s time we talk about it.

Richard Spencer is a self-declared “white nationalist” who founded the Alt-Right – Alternative Right – movement in 2010. He has erecently kicked off a tour of college campuses to recruit new members who are disillusioned with the Republican political establishment.

At its core, the Alt-Right claims to protect white people from an unfolding “cultural genocide” perpetrated by the empowerment of feminists and people of colour. But who is supposed to protect everybody else from bigots like Spencer?

In 2015, the FBI reported that out of the 2,125 hate crime offences recorded against blacks, white people were the perpetrators 58 percent of the time. Whites, on the other hand, were victims in only 10 percent of the total of 5,850 reported incidences.

Meanwhile, Muslims experienced a 67 percent increase in hate crimes directed towards them in the same time frame. Anti-Semitic attacks remained the most frequent.

The real figures could be much higher since many states don’t report hate crimes to the FBI. That’s only part of the problem. The fact the White House is propagating hate speech is more worrying.

Lecia Pickett, the outreach director for SPLC, said that their centre has started a programme on college campuses to try and safeguard young white men from radicalisation. She also emphasised the importance of engaging with Republican groups who sponsor talks by people like Spencer.

“[Minorities] are very concerned with the increase of anti-Semitism and anti-feminism,” Lecia told MEE.

“[America] just can’t afford to backtrack on these things. [SPLC] is speaking on campuses all the time and speaking to administrators as well.”

Despite the efforts of groups like SPLC, propaganda is difficult to counter.

Last year, Breitbart News – an Alt-Right outlet that Trump promoted during his campaign – experienced a considerable spike in traffic from 13 million to 19 million visitors.

The resurgence of **** aspirations hasn’t compelled governments to seriously ponder how to safeguard young white men from extremism – unlike the hysteria that follows people of colour and Muslims when a crime is committed in their name

Such platforms and the leaders who endorse them are radicalising people beyond the US. That much was clear after a white French-Canadian student stepped into an Islamic Cultural Centre late last month and killed six men for no reason other than their faith.

It was later revealed that the shooter supported Trump and the far-right French politician Marine Le Pen.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the killing a terrorist attack. However, the resurgence of **** aspirations hasn’t compelled governments to seriously ponder how to safeguard young white men from extremism – unlike the hysteria that follows people of colour and Muslims when a crime is committed in their name.

That trend is certain to continue. Donald Trump’s administration is already pushing to remove neo-Nazis and white supremacists from the US governmment’s counter-extremism programme. Instead, they want to concentrate solely on “Islamic terrorists” and change the name of the programme from ‘Countering Violent Extremism’ to ‘Countering Radical Islamic Extremism’.

Never mind an FBI report, written more than 10 years ago, that warned about white supremacists groups infiltrating local and state law enforcement. The disturbing truth is that they won’t have to look over their shoulder as long as Trump is in charge.

If only the same can be said about young black men who continue to be profiled, harassed and killed by the police.

The banality of Trump

Many Trump supporters, while understandably fed up with the corrupt political establishment, failed to combat the bigotry of their candidate.

His campaign catered to the most extreme prejudices of white America. The nation’s racist past appeared to be an afterthought for his supporters. Not much has changed in the first weeks of his presidency.

The latest Reuters opinion poll reported that more people supported Trump’s executive order to ban Muslims than opposed it. Opinions were divided almost entirely along political party lines.

That’s not to say that everyone who agrees with Trump is radicalised. But it does suggest that people are buying into the fears being fed to them.

Trump is shoving a vision of the world – deprived of nuance and tolerance – down the throats of anyone willing to swallow it.

His tactics aren’t new. The Jewish German political theorist, Hannah Arendt, once wrote: “the sad truth is that most evil is done by those who never make up their minds to be good or evil”.

These words couldn’t be more relevant. Trump’s administration is counting on their most passive supporters to approve presidential decrees while hoping those who resist eventually normalise the unacceptable.

If that happens, white supremacy will thrive in the wake of indifference.

Why is it happening? Because people always try and blame the outsiders for their troubles. It's easier that way, they don't have to confront themselves and their own failings. And they are always frightened by change and want things to stay the same forever, which has never happened in the whole of history.

Why do you think anything has changed. You think this is any different to stringing up blacks because they were deemed to be inferior? Or attacking Jews because they were the outsider. Gone on since the year dot. It's exactly the same as calling women witches because they lived on the edge of a village and were unmarried - ie different.

Sassy wrote:Why do you think anything has changed. You think this is any different to stringing up blacks because they were deemed to be inferior? Or attacking Jews because they were the outsider. Gone on since the year dot. It's exactly the same as calling women witches because they lived on the edge of a village and were unmarried - ie different.

yes but clearly the pace and intensity has changed recently, or at least if the intensity of left flapping has anything in it...In fact its got much worse in the last 4-5 years....apparantly,

and certainly the prevelence and influence of far right ideas has greatly increased, france was so socialist for years ...now look, same with germany ...ultra "middle of the road" scared of their own shadow, same with holland, sweden etc.....and look at america....just voted in (their crazy electoral system not withstanding) as far right a POTUS as you can imagine...

Sassy wrote:Three words, economics, austerity and uncertainty. Classic combination. Same situation as the 30s in Germany.

Ahhhh, forgot one; RACIST ...being subjected to a highly educated biracial black man and despite all of the slanderous lies/humiliating attacks/stymied attempts to STOP HIM from succeeding - he did just that in many - MANY of his Must Do Lists of promised political party agenda. And nothing rankled the 'White Supremacist' mindset more than to see POTUS #44 still succeed despite all of the lies/monkey god/messiah/Muslim BS that was thrown at him and his family.

I think that is very true in America. Those who thought themselves superior simply because they are white, found living under a black man intolerable and vowed to get their own back. After all, the KKK and the Alt Right stand firmly behind Trump.

Sassy wrote:I think that is very true in America. Those who thought themselves superior simply because they are white, found living under a black man intolerable and vowed to get their own back. After all, the KKK and the Alt Right stand firmly behind Trump.

And don't you think that the 'GLOBAL' swing to more open minded equality issues has forced the 'hard wired-bible thumpers' to gear up and push their 'SATAN' agenda as never before. At least that was just more combustible fuel for the racial issues that the 'R-Winged Bible Belt' used as their main stream Sunday Sermon; pounding that home at any given opportunity - "the LGBT are going to ruin our country and it's that BLACK MAN'S FAULT" ...we were headed straight to Hell-in a hand basket according to those fake-faithful churchy people.

Regardless of how many social issues they were benefiting from under POTUS #44's era And the louder & harder they screeched - the louder & harder the Repugs tried to stand firm; Obama stood strong and walked tall and while he didn't succeed 100% of his/our agenda ...his class act and professional demeanor was so refreshing against the worst vile/racist attacks thrown at him and his lovely family.